The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)—in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office for Victim Assistance and Department of Justice's Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism—recently released an innovative electronic toolkit, Helping Victims of Mass Violence and Terrorism: Planning, Response, Recovery, and Resources. This multidisciplinary product provides communities with the framework, strategies, and resources to do the following:

Conduct planning and preparation before an incident occurs

Mitigate the effects of future acts on victims

Respond to active incidents

Recover after an incident of mass violence or terrorism occurs

The toolkit serves as a victim-centered resource for a wide range of professionals interested in developing a comprehensive victim-assistance plan to meet the needs of all victims.

Child Welfare Information Gateway has published an issue brief, Child Welfare and Human Trafficking, which gives an overview of the crossover between the child welfare field and current work on preventing and responding to human trafficking of children and youth in the United States. The brief focuses on sex trafficking of children and youth—the type of trafficking most likely to affect the child welfare population—providing basic information, high-lights of Federal legislation, a discussion on the needs of victims, and ways that child welfare agencies can address the problem of the trafficking of children.

A new mobile game app helps children who have experienced trauma by letting them use their tablets or smartphones to practice life skills they have learned in the therapist’s office. During the game, TF-CBT Triangle of Life, created by mental health professionals at Allegheny Health Network and students at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, the player takes the role of a lion in the jungle guiding other animals toward positive experiences and relation-ships. Judith Cohen, MD, and Anthony Mannarino, PhD of the Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents at Allegheny General Hospital and Esther Deblinger, PhD of the New Jersey CARES Institute developed Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). You can download the free TF-CBT Triangle of Life app from iTunes and Google Play stores.

Publications by Network Members and Colleagues

Network Colleagues Audra Langley, Araceli Gonzalez, Catherine Sugar, Diana Solis, and Lisa Jaycox co-authored Bounce Back: Effectiveness of an Elementary School-Based Intervention for Multicultural Children Exposed to Traumatic Events to evaluate the feasibility of a school-based intervention for diverse children exposed to a range of traumatic events and to examine its effectiveness in improving symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. Participants were the primary caretakers and their 74 schoolchildren (Grades 1-5) who endorsed clinically significant posttraumatic stress symptoms. School clinicians were trained to deliver the 10-session cognitive-behavioral group intervention and children were randomized to immediate or delayed (3-month waitlist) intervention. Authors assessed parent and child report of posttraumatic stress and depression and child report of anxiety symptoms at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Compared with children waitlisted, children who received Bounce Back demonstrated immediate and significantly greater improvements in symptoms of posttrau¬matic stress and anxiety over the 3-month intervention. On receipt of the intervention, the delayed intervention group reported significant improvements in posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms. The immediate treatment group maintained or showed continued gains in all symptom domains over the 3-month follow-up period (6-month assessment). Findings support the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the Bounce Back intervention as delivered by school-based clinicians for children with traumatic stress. Authors also discuss the implications of the study.

Network Colleagues Joan Cook and Elana Newman have co-authored A Consensus Statement on Trauma Mental Health: The New Haven Competency Conference Process and Major Findings in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy (Volume 6, Number 4). Although the scientific literature on traumatic stress is large, most psychologists have only a cursory knowledge of this science and have neither formal training in, nor evidence-based psychosocial treatments for, trauma-related disorders. To address the need for a comprehensive model of trauma-focused, empirically-informed competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes), the New Haven Competencies consensus conference assembled sixty experts to delineate five broad foundational and functional competencies in the areas of trauma-focused and trauma-informed scientific knowledge, psychosocial assessment, psychosocial interventions, professionalism, and relational and systems [work]. In addition, the conference voted eight crosscutting competencies into the final product. These trauma competencies can provide the basis for the future training of a trauma-informed mental health workforce.

Refugee youth and their families flee their home country—due to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion—to seek protection in another country. Refugee youth and families often resettle in urban neighborhoods in North America that have high rates of community violence. In this webinar, the presenters discuss the “double edge sword” that refugee youth experience in resettlement.

The evacuation of 1.1 million residents from an area approximately equal to the land mass of Great Britain resulted in 19 states participating in federally-funded crisis counseling programs organized to address the evacuation, sheltering, and recovery needs of Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In this webinar, the

presenters—each of whom played a key role in the Hurricane Katrina response—address the unique challenges faced from multiple perspectives: the directly damaged state of Louisiana, a "host" state (Colorado), a "host" city of Houston, and the federal response plan (SAMHSA). The content presented provides essential information

regarding early stage sheltering and stabilization, intermediate and longer-term assimilation into temporary communities, and repatriation to the survivor’s home state. The information presented will benefit policy makers, emergency response planners, treatment providers, public health officials, and local emergency response

Project Fleur-de-lisTM (PFDL), an intermediate and long-term school-based mental health response to Hurricane Katrina, conducts school-based trauma-informed treatment. This case study examines the rationale, design, implementation, evaluation, and impact of PFDL as a grass roots program that has become a model for a school-based trauma-informed system of care for nearly 100 schools in the Greater New Orleans area. Lessons learned from PFDL can assist other cities and their schools that experience disasters by informing school policy in disaster preparedness and in the immediate and long-term school-based mental health responses for students.

There has been increased focus and attention on implementing trauma-informed approaches in child welfare settings. "Trauma-Informed" has become a buzzword in our work; but what does “trauma-Informed” look like in practice? What does it take to become a trauma-informed system, and how do you know when you get there? This webinar aims to answer these questions by utilizing examples from two child welfare jurisdictions participating in a SAMHSA funded project with the Chadwick Center for Children & Families. The Chadwick Center presenters explain why this work is important and briefly describe the process for selecting five Supercommunities of practice for participation in the project. They review the essential elements of a trauma-informed system and provide concrete strategies for assessing the readiness of a system to change, in addition to describing themes common to the five Supercommunities. Presenters highlight two communities involved in this transformational process, including promising TI practices, utilization of resources, challenges to implementation, and strategies for overcoming them. This webinar also explores the role of consultation, training, technical assistance, and other resources Supercommunities use as they attempt to create true culture change within their jurisdictions. One CEU credit hour is available for this webinar presentation. There is a $20 fee for CEUs for non-members and a $10 fee for CWLA members. If you are interested in CEUs, please e-mail memberservices@cwla.org for details.